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Nieuws uit 2009

10 November 2009

‘Stop Business as Usual’

On Tuesday 10th November a delegation from the SP's European Parliament group, accompanied by an enthusiastic band of SP activists who had travelled down from the Netherlands to Brussels for the occasion, kicked off a campaign for openness and honesty in the regulation of lobbying in the EU institutions. Distributing flyers at the doors of the European Parliament building, they called on MEPs, staff and passers-by to take action. The campaign's slogan 'Stop Business As Usual', is a reference to the enormous lobbying circus in Brussels, dominated as it is by big business.

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10 November 2009

Parliament supports SP: 'Drugs Policy no business of Europe'

The government must take back control of drugs policy in Europe. This proposal from SP Member of Parliament Krista van Velzen today received the support of a majority in parliament. “The EU has surreptitiously taken a degree of control over our drugs policy," says Van Velzen. "We were recently forced to ban a substance unknown in the Netherlands because 'Europe says we must'. That is of course unacceptable. The Netherlands controls such matters for itself. I'm delighted that a majority in parliament agrees with me on this.”

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9 November 2009

Over the Wall

by Ewout Irrgang

Precisely twenty years ago the wall fell. In 1982, as a six-year-old, I visited my family in the GDR (East Germany) in the company of my parents and my four-year-old brother. So – I was very young. But I was old enough to carry away a child's memories. Such as the fact that my parents suddenly became very nervous as we arrived at the German-German border, the then Iron Curtain. Not a single checkpoint, but a whole street with many checkpoints had to be traversed before we could drive into the 'Workers' and Farmers' Paradise'. And I was really offended when I had to hand in my comic book to the border guards.

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6 November 2009

Left, Right and Centre unite behind end to ban on blasphemy

SP Member of Parliament Jan de Wit today joined colleagues from the centre-right VVD and centrist D66 in proposing that the ban on blasphemy be scrapped. The proposal stands an excellent chance of finding the backing of a parliamentary majority. "It's not that I think you should be able to go round insulting anyone and everyone," says De Wit, "that's not why we want this scrapped. The law provides sufficient protection against insult and discrimination. There is no reason why religious believers should enjoy more protection than others."

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6 November 2009

Decontamination of asbestos cement roofs less costly than doing nothing

On Friday, SP Member of Parliament Remi Poppe presented a report to an enthusiastic group of farmers on the need for decontamination of asbestos cement roofs. In the report, the SP argues for decontamination of the roofs, widespread on Dutch farms, because of the high degree of risk they carry for public health.

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3 November 2009

'International solidarity still needed'

SP Member of Parliament Ewout Irrgang, the party's spokesman on overseas development, intervened in last Monday's discussion of the annual budget to issue a strong plea for international solidarity. Irrgang is among a broad group of signatories to a manifesto entitled 'Aid does help' (see below). "It shouldn't be a matter of reducing aid, but of improving it," he said. "The disproportionate emphasis on unsuccessful aspects of development cooperation doesn't do justice to the need for continuing international solidarity."

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